WOW!!!

How were they doing up to this point? Have you cut the stem open to extricate the buggers?

Yes but once the damage is done, there's no turning back.

Yikes!!!!!!! Not a good harbinger of things to come! I always netted my plants till they started producing female flowers, mid July...then uncover them...but in the meanwhile I always plant a couple zucchini that are "disposable" ...I let the SVB infest them, then I pull and toss in a fire...usually a day or 2 before I uncover my other plants...so far that has worked well for me.

Maybe being warmer than I am here, they hung around to breed a few weeks longer than they do here...

When you say "trashed your plants"...did you compost them? The only way to really get rid of them is to bag them, and ship them off to a landfill, or pull the plants and toss them in a fire.

Yep, my experience agrees, there is no "safe" from SVB.

Sorry it didn't work out....

It has been a warm summer in the eastern part of the country, so you ran into the dreaded second generation. Usually it is zone 8 or higher, that means this year was a zone 8-9 summer for you.

Lucky me.

OMG! Sorry. Mine are still standing but covered with PM

That would be very strange for a second generation that far north but maybe there was a SVB that overslept this season :).

It's very frustrating.

I'm in Philly and found one today when I was attempting to fix the damage from my initial attack. I didn't find anything left in any other spots the plant is huge and continuing to get bigger so I buried the damaged stem in fresh soil and gonna hope for the best. Any suggestions on what to do if there is a second generation?

"Any suggestions on what to do if there is a second generation?"

Do you mean from the one you just found, or in general?

First generations of SVB adults occur in very late spring/early summer. In warmer areas, second generation adults occur in late summer. The one you recently found was from an egg laid by an adult moth of a first or second generation. The adults though, are not very long lived. It should be quite safe to say that there won't be any more generations this year. Depending on one's local conditions, there may still be adults of a second generation that emerge, but those chances are slim. Generally, in Pa. there is only 1 generation per year. But who knows, climate is changing and every year has its own peculiarities.

The defense against SVB 2nd generation is the same as the first. Know what's normal for your locale and plan accordingly.

Here is N. Texas,it feels like we probably have 3 or 4 generations! This year they appeared early May, and are still going on, although the past few days I've not been finding many eggs. My sugar pie pumpkin plants are doing great. I started them at the end of July, and they were covered in tulle netting until Sept 1st, when I could no longer contain the plants. I've been burying the vines in dirt or mulch whenever possible to let them root in the ground more (but checking for eggs on the vines before I do that!), picking off eggs (many are laid on underside of vines so you have to look carefully). The base of my plants are completely covered in mulch, so the SVBs can't get to them. This approach works for me, as even when the SVBs get to the main vines, they are so well rooted in so many places that the plants still produce.